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The first Earth Day was proclaimed on April 22, 1970 by one of its principal founders, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Already frustrated by the attitudes of big business, Senator Nelson, as the chairman of the White House Conference on Small Business, wisely noted that "the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around." He became greatly influenced by John McConnell, a grassroots organizer from San Francisco and Harvard graduate student, Denis Hayes. He asked the latter to organize nationwide events on college and public school campuses that would bring awareness to the environmental crises facing the world. As a result many environmental and conservation organizations were born and the Environmental Protection Agency was created.

We still have a long way to go. While some things have improved, we still have much to do. Economic interests continue to bring enormous pressure on the environment i.e., the BP oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the current nuclear crisis in Japan.

To learn more you might like to take out some of the following titles available in the branch libraries: